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A Black Hole’s Orbiting Ring of Light Could Encrypt Its Inner Secrets

September 8, 2022

Physicists have discovered that the ring of photons orbiting a black hole exhibits a special kind of symmetry, hinting at a deeper meaning.

Mass and Angular Momentum, Left Ambiguous by Einstein, Get Defined

July 13, 2022

Surprising as it may sound, 107 years after the introduction of general relativity, the meanings of basic concepts are still being worked out.

Where Do Space, Time and Gravity Come From?

May 4, 2022

Einstein’s description of curved space-time doesn’t easily mesh with a universe made up of quantum wavefunctions. Theoretical physicist Sean Carroll discusses the quest for quantum gravity with host Steven Strogatz.

Massive Black Holes Shown to Act Like Quantum Particles

March 29, 2022

Physicists are using quantum math to understand what happens when black holes collide. In a surprise, they’ve shown that a single particle can describe a collision’s entire gravitational wave.

Q&A

In Search of Cracks in Albert Einstein’s Theory of Gravity

February 23, 2022

Celia Escamilla-Rivera is combining large data sets with supercomputers to test general relativity against its little-known competitors.

How Gravity Is a Double Copy of Other Forces

May 4, 2021

An enigmatic connection between the forces of nature is allowing physicists to explore gravity’s quantum side.

Quantum Mischief Rewrites the Laws of Cause and Effect

March 11, 2021

Spurred on by quantum experiments that scramble the ordering of causes and their effects, some physicists are figuring out how to abandon causality altogether.

The Year in Physics

December 23, 2020

Featuring paradoxical black holes, room-temperature superconductors and a new escape from the prison of time.

A New Cosmic Tension: The Universe Might Be Too Thin

September 8, 2020

Cosmologists have concluded that the universe doesn’t appear to clump as much as it should. Could both of cosmology’s big puzzles share a single fix?

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